Brugière, Pierre

BRUGIÈRE, PIERRE. - Publicist and constitutionalist priest, b. at Thiers on 3 Oct. 1730 and d. in Paris on 7 Nov. 1803. A canon at Thiers, he refused to subscribe to the formula of acceptance of the bull Unigenitus. In 1768 he was in Paris in the community of St. Roch, having previously exercised his ministry at Clermont, Riom and Brioude. Having sworn the civil constitution of the clergy, which he defended against ecclesiastical censures, he obtained, also because he was a Jansenist, the parish of St. Paul; he nevertheless always remained faithful to celibacy, protesting moreover against the archbishop of Paris who had granted canonical investiture to a married priest. Having for this reason become suspect to the Constituent Assembly, he was imprisoned, but was soon released; and so twice more for unlawful exercise of ministry. In 1797 and 1801 he attended the councils of the constitutionalist clergy.

Obstinate and fanatical in schism, even after the return of his constitutionalist colleagues and after the concordat, he attempted to perpetuate the schism with the founding of the Society of Christian Philosophy. Misled by the Jansenist, Gallican and Enlightenment principles that delivered him into the arms of the Revolution, he was the standard-bearer of the secessionist movement of the Constitutionalist church, whose history could be written by writing the history of his writings. As a Jansenist he opposed the cult of the Sacred Heart, and even concerning the Virgin he had original ideas. As a Gallican he called into question the principle of ecclesiastical authority and was a proponent of an innovation tending to bring about the introduction of the French language in liturgical functions and in the administration of the Sacraments.

Of the many writings, particular mention deserves: Instructions catholiques sur la dévotion au Sacré-Coeur de Jésus (Paris 1777); Discours patriotique au sujet des brefs du pape (ibid. 1791); Réflexions d'un curé constitutionnel sur le décret de l'assemblée nationale concernant le mariage (ibid. 1791); Lettre d'un curé sur le décret qui supprime le costume des prêtres (ibid. 1791); Le nouveau disciple de Luther (ibid. 1792); Appel au peuple français concernant l'admission de la langue française dans l'administration des Sacrements (1798); decis aux fidèles sur la rétractation du serment civique (ibid. 1800); Observations des fidèles à MM. les évêques de France (ibid. 1802); Instructions choisies (ibid. 1804).

Vito Zollini